Vatican puts abuse rules online to quell critics

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The dome of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. April 4, 2005/Alessia Pierdomenico

The Vatican published an online guide on Monday to rules for handling sex abuse charges against priests and defended the pope’s handling of the media storm, saying he was a “great communicator in his own way”.

Just over a year after Pope Benedict acknowledged the Holy See had been slow to embrace the Internet, after mishandling the case of a Holocaust-denying bishop, the Vatican posted an “idiot’s guide” to its rules on how to deal with abuse charges.

Although the rules are not new, their publication in a short, simple format reflects the Roman Catholic Church’s determination to deflect criticism that its response to the sex abuse scandal has been bureaucratic, secretive and defensive.

The official Vatican website called it an “introductory guide which may be helpful to lay persons and non-canonists (referring to ‘canon’ or internal church law)” to rules for local churches on how to respond to sex abuse allegations.

It made clear high up that bishops must report crimes to the police, saying “civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed”.

Author Profile

I moved to Berlin to run our German political, economic and general news file in 2010 after nearly four years as chief correspondent in Rome covering Berlusconi, the L'Aquila earthquake, G8 summit and Vatican. I was Nordic and Baltic bureau chief for 3-1/2 years and bureau chief of southern Latin America, based in Buenos Aires, for eight years including the Argentine collapse in 2001/2002. My first assignments for Reuters were in Spain, Portugal and our HQ in London. Before Reuters I worked for the Financial Times Group.